Three accused of aberrant crimes who mock …

From Rome

They are three older men, long settled in Italy, loved by their neighbors, most of whom do not know who they are. In Battipaglia, 70 kilometers south of Naples, he lives Jorge Néstor Troccoli, former head of the Uruguayan intelligence services. In the province of Parma lives Franco Reverberi, a priest accused of helping to torture detainees in an underground prison in Mendoza province. In Sicily lives Carlos Luis Malatto, who served in RIM22, the San Juan Mountain Infantry Regiment.

A long and detailed article, which presented the investigative work of nine Spanish, French and Italian journalists, and was published this week by the Italian newspaper The Republic, he told the public the story of the two soldiers and the priest accused of serious human rights violations in the 70s, under state terrorism, who escaped justice in Italian territory. The article presented each case, where they live, how they live, who has helped them and who protects them, again raising an issue that seemed to have passed into oblivion in Italy, especially in these times of coronavirus.

The nine journalists from the The jump (an alternative newspaper from Madrid), Streetpress de France (an information web portal) and the Centro di Giornalismo permanent (a group of independent journalists working for an alternative model of journalism) said that “The three elderly men live in the Italian provinces and lead a quiet life (…) They live without being noticed, speak Italian well and have integrated into the respective communities.. No one can imagine that they are wanted for crimes against humanity committed during the South American dictatorships of the 1970s. “

Italian justice rejected the extradition request of the two Italo-Argentines to Argentina, because the Italian penal code did not include at the time the crime of torture. But it was listed in 2015 and now things are about to change.

On May 26, Italian Justice Minister Alfonso Bonafede authorized criminal proceedings against Malatto, while in Argentina on October 2 a new request was made to seek the extradition to Argentina of priest Reverberi for the second time. On June 24, in addition, the Italian Supreme Court will announce its final ruling on the Condor process (which prosecutes military personnel and politicians from several Latin American countries), which could uphold the life imprisonment requested for Troccoli, who lives for the moment at liberty although he cannot leave the country for which his passport was withdrawn.

Reverberi

“Don” (as parish priests are called in Italy) Franco Reverberi is now 83 years old and lives in a small town in the province of Parma, Sorbolo, where he was born and which he left with his parents to emigrate to Argentina at the age of 11. He returned to his hometown in 2011 and since then has been Pastor of the Church of Saints Faustino and Giovita de Sorbolo.

But in 2012, her photo appeared on the website of the international police organization Interpol, accused of crimes against humanity and torture. For more than 40 years, Reverberi lived in San Rafael, Mendoza, where, during the years of the dictatorship, the “Departmental House” managed the underground center. “Don Franco” was a military chaplain of the army and when in 2010 a trial took place in San Rafael against several torturers, he was summoned by the courts to testify. Several witnesses said that when they were tortured the chaplain was present in military uniform. In 2011, he fled to Italy when he had been summoned by the Argentine justice. On September 26, 2012, Argentina requested extradition but it was refused by the Italian courts because the Penal Code did not include the crime of torture.

The authors of the article went to find the pastor of the church where continues to celebrate masses in ItalyAnd there they were stopped by another priest who worked for years with Don Franco, who tried to expel them, arguing that “more than 40 years have passed, they should leave him alone. He also said that he spoke with the local bishop about the persecution of journalists and told him, “punch them in the teeth.” “Do you want me to show you the bishop’s message?” The priest asked reporters.

Troccoli

Of the other two cases of soldiers with Italian passports, Troccoli from Uruguay and Malatto from Argentina, many more have been heard, especially since if Troccoli’s life sentence is upheld by the Supreme Court in June, she most likely will go to prison.

Troccoli was the head of S2, the intelligence of the Uruguayan Navy. In 1996, he was the first soldier to speak about what happened during the dictatorships. But when the processes against the army began in Uruguay, he fled to Italy. In October 2007 he arrived in Marina di Camerota (south of Naples), a small maritime town where his family came from. There was an international arrest warrant against him for which he decided to spontaneously appear in court. He was arrested and imprisoned, but only until April 24, 2008, when he was released because the Uruguayan embassy failed to forward the extradition request in time. Since then he has lived as a pensioner in Marina di Camerota, then moved to Battipaglia. Perhaps he thought he was free forever until Italian justice decided to prosecute 33 soldiers and civilians from different Latin American countries for the disappearance of forty political opponents, many of them Italian origin, as part of the “Condor process”. In 1977, Troccoli was transferred to Buenos Aires to capture the Uruguayans who escaped to the Argentine capital. He is credited with the deaths of around 20 people.

Sickly

Last May, the Italian Ministry of Justice authorized the start of a trial against Carlos Luis Malatto, who has lived in Italy for more than 10 years. He is credited with the kidnapping and death of at least five Argentine citizens, including the rector of the University of San Juan, Juan Carlos Cámpora.

Malatto has changed his residence several times since he escaped to Italy, he even lived in a church in Genoa where the Argentine priest José Galdeano Fernández lodged him. Later, Malatto moved to L’Aquila (central Italy) where he lived in a kind of residence for the nuns of the Institute of the Servants of Marie Reparatrice. Since June 2019 he has been living in Portorosa, in the province of Messina.

The article also included statements from Eloy Camus (grandson of the governor of the province of San Juan who bore the same name), who at the age of 18 was kidnapped and tortured by the men of RIM22. And also Eva Lerouc, daughter of Manuel and Ana Lerouc, an assassinated and his missing wife. Eva came to Rome to testify before the judges and went to Malatto’s residence in Sicily. “It is very bad to know that Malatto is still free and enjoys a life that an ordinary citizen cannot afford.. It’s as if Hitler had gone to live in the Bahamas, free to live a life of fun, ”he said.